Bertrand Arthur William Russell
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Bertrand Russell discovered Russell’s Paradox in 1901, revolutionizing mathematics. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 for his philosophical writings. He was a founding president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and a vocal atheist. He died in 1970 at age 97.
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Bertrand Russell — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell entered life on 18 May 1872 in Ravenscroft, Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Wales. He studied at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, focusing on mathematics and philosophy. That early focus directly informed his later work.
In 1901, Bertrand Russell discovered Russell’s Paradox, a fundamental problem in set theory that revolutionized mathematics. He became a leading proponent of logicism, arguing that mathematics is reducible to formal logic. In 1950, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his philosophical works. Russell also engaged in public activism, serving as the founding president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He survived a plane crash in 1949, later using his experience to advocate for peace.
Bertrand Russell married Alys Pearsall in December 1894; they separated in 1911 and divorced in 1921. He then married Dora Black in 1921, with whom he had two children: John Conrad and Katharine Jane. His third marriage was to Patricia Spence from 1936 to 1952, and they had a son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell. In 1952, he married Edith Finch, who remained with him until his death. Russell was a militant atheist and read the Bible every day, calling it know your enemy.
Russell’s Paradox remains a cornerstone of mathematical logic, and his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 confirmed his literary influence. He inspired playwright Peter Shaffer, who modeled the protagonist of The Battle of Shrivings 1970 on Russell. His advocacy for nuclear disarmament and contributions to analytic philosophy remain influential. He shaped modern thought across philosophy and peace activism.
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Men Who Are Unhappy, Like Men Who Sleep Badly, Are Always Proud of the Fact.
Although This May Seem a Paradox, All Exact Science Is Dominated by the Idea of Approximation.
All Professions Are Plots Against the Laity.
Insight, Untested and Unsupported, Is an Insufficient Guarantee of Truth.
Men Are Born Ignorant, Not Stupid. They Are Made Stupid by Education.
It Is Not What the Man of Science Believes That Distinguishes Him but How and Why He Believes It. His Beliefs Are Tentative, Not Dogmatic; They Are Based Upon Evidence, Not on Authority or Intuition.
The Whole Problem with the World Is That Fools and Fanatics Are Always so Certain of Themselves, but Wiser People so Full of Doubts.
We Are Faced with the Paradoxical Fact That Education Has Become One of the Chief Obstacles to Intelligence and Freedom of Thought.
Of All Forms of Caution, Caution in Love Is Perhaps the Most Fatal to True Happiness.
One of the Signs of an Approaching Nervous Breakdown Is the Belief That One’s Work Is Important.
The Fact That an Opinion Has Been Widely Held Is No Evidence That It Is Not Utterly Absurd; Indeed, in View of the Silliness of the Majority of Mankind, a Widespread Belief Is More Likely to Be Foolish Than Sensible.
Conformity Means Death. Only Protest Gives a Hope of Life.
Our Great Democracies Still Tend to Think That a Stupid Man Is More Likely to Be Honest Than a Clever Man, and Our Politicians Take Advantage of This Prejudice by Pretending to Be Even More Stupid Than Nature Made Them.
To My Recollection There Is Not One Word in the Gospels in Praise of Intelligence.
A Stupid Man’s Report of What a Clever Man Says Can Never Be Accurate, Because He Unconsciously Translates What He Hears into Something He Can Understand.
Science Is What You Know. Philosophy Is What You Don’t Know.
Little-known facts about Bertrand Russell — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Russell served as the founding president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.
He narrated the ABC-BBC radio production Living in an Atomic Age in 1953.
Russell’s contributions to mathematics include his discovery of Russell’s Paradox, his defense of logicism, and his introduction of the theory of types.
He was the father of three children: John Conrad Russell and Katharine Jane Russell with Dora Black, and Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell with Patricia Spence.
A militant atheist, Russell read the Bible daily, explaining that the oldest rule of strategy is Know your enemy.
In 1949, while flying over Scandinavia, Russell was asked to sit at the back because he smoked a pipe. The plane crashed into a fjord, killing the non-smoking passengers up front, but Russell survived and lived for over twenty more years.
Critics widely considered Russell to be the model for the protagonist of Peter Shaffer’s play The Battle of Shrivings, first staged in 1970 and starring John Gielgud.
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